Bali Bitter Medicine

Jasa Marga Bali Responds to Call to Halt the Toll Way Project as Out of Touch with Bali’s Traffic Situation and What Must Be Done to Fix it

(9/16/2012)

The spokesman for PT Jasa Marga – the consortium building the new Benoa – Ngurah Rai – Nusa Dua toll way has compared the road network in Bali to a patient suffering from coronary disease.

Quoted by Beritabali.com, Drajad J. Suseno said: “The road network in Bali is like a patient suffering from acute heart disease; the arteries to and from the heart (of the patient) are clogged. The only solution remaining is to undertake a bypass operation. To perform this operation, the patient must be prepared to allow his ribcage to be split open. So it’s very strange when the doctor begins to split open the chest cavity, some scream ‘my body is being destroyed.”

Continuing, the Jasa Marga spokesman said: “”What’s important is that after the operation and the heart is functioning, the chest cavity is restored to its original state. This is the sacrifice and logical consequence, which must be pursued. Likewise, with the building of the toll road in Bal, there is a method of work requiring a temporary excavation (of the mangrove forest) that will later be recovered for the natural environment.”

Suseno said that toll way should not be compared with the Bali International Park project rejected by local environmentalists.

“We are rushing to complete the project. To do this, our workers, who are also children of the nation, need room and time to complete their work, prove their capabilities and not be distracted by unnecessary issues. What’s important is that (our) commitment to the environment must be proven once the toll way is completed. Don’t be suspicious or create negative sentiments that we are trying to destroy the environment. If you want to be suspicious, be suspicious. But what are your real motives?” asked Suseno.

Suseno’s comments follow calls by the Bali Friends of the Earth (WALHI) to boycott the APEC Summit in 2013 due to perceived damage being done to Bali’s environment by the toll way project.

Source: BaliDiscovery.com